Revision as of 22:17, 3 September 2006

Yiddish is spoken as a daily language in some parts of America, mostly in New York City, and in some parts of Europe, particularly Eastern Europe, and South America, as well as in Israel. It is slightly higher than standard German, with a large admixture of words of Hebrew, Slavic, or other origin. As Yiddish is roughly 75% Germanic in origin, German speakers can understand a large part of it.

Yiddish is written with the same alphabet as Hebrew, with a few additional letters, and is written from right to left.

Pronunciation guide

Yiddish pronounciation is different from German or Israeli Hebrew. Words of European origin are spelled out, similar to most European languages, and can be said as they are spelled. On the other hand, words of Semitic (Hebrew and Aramaic) origin are written just as in the original Hebrew or Aramaic, without vowels. In many cases you must learn how to pronounce these words in Yiddish; you cannot necessarily work it out from their spelling, and they are mostly pronounced differently from Israeli Hebrew.

א shtumer alef

silent; used before ו vov and י yud when they are vowels; e.g. איר (ir) you subj.

אַ pasekh alef

axe

אָ komets aleph

orange

ב beys

like bear

בֿ veys

like volume; only used in words of Hebrew or Aramaic origin

ג giml

like gone

ד daled

like dog

ה hey

like harp

ו vov

like or or tune

וּ melupm vov

used in place of ו vov when it appears beside װ tsvey vovn

װ tsvey vovn

like violin

ױ vov yud

like boy

ז zayin

like zebra

ח khes

like the Scottish Gaelic loch, German ach, or as in חנוכּה (khanuke); used only in words of Hebraic or Aramaic origin

ט tes

like tuck

י yud

like yet (as a consonant) or internet (as a vowel)

יִ khirek yud

used beside another vowel instead of י yud, to show that it is to be pronounced separately; e.g. ייִדיש (yidish) Yiddish